Hobart City Council racks up $70,000 in code of conduct complaints

Complaints of bad behaviour by Hobart City Councillors has cost ratepayers over $70,000, according to the latest figures from council.

Complaints of bad behaviour by Hobart City aldermen has cost ratepayers over $70,000 in code of conduct costs since 2019.

Figures obtained by The Mercury show that Hobart City Council is the most litigious cohort by far, racking up more code of conduct complaints than all surrounding councils combined.

The combined code of conduct costs of Glenorchy, Sorell, Kingborough, Launceston, and Clarence City Council only amounts to $9898 for their respective terms in office.

Hobart City Councillor Marti Zucco outspent all of them in one code of conduct case alone, spending $30,500 in his legal battle against Hobart Not Highrise’s Brian Corr.

Cr Mike Dutta said councillors like Cr Zucco who lose their code of conduct battles should be made to pay up, rather than leaving ratepayers to foot the bill.

“If you take me to a code of conduct and I was the guilty party, then I think I should be made to bear at least some of the costs,” Cr Dutta said.

Independent candidate for Clark Mike Dutta in relation to his stance on pokies and political donations. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“It’s very easy to spend ratepayers’ money, but whenever it hits our own pocket then it’s a different matter.”

Cr Zucco hit back at Cr Dutta’s comments, saying he was weaponising code of conduct costs in order to further his own “lefty” agenda.

“Councillor Dutta is playing politics with this, that’s all he is doing,” Cr Zucco said.

“I’ve always said, the code of conduct process is nothing more than a political tool by many in order to shut down people like myself and Simon Behrakis.”

Cr Zucco said he “felt sorry” for Cr Ewin even though they were on the opposite end of the political spectrum, since they too had copped “frivolous” code of conduct charges.

Cr Ewin said they thought the code of conduct process was flawed, expensive, and easily exploited by people with “vexatious” grievances.

SUN TAS. Marti Zucco on the North Hobart restaurant strip. Marti Zucco has become the longest serving Hobart City Council alderman having been elected in 1992. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

However, Cr Ewin agreed with Cr Dutta that councillors who lose code of conduct complaints should bear the costs, themself included.

“I do think there should be some ramifications if there’s a breach. The onus should be on the elected member for restitution, not the public purse,” Cr Ewin said.

“I totally support that, but I do think that the code of conduct panel, the process, and the

legislation is inherently flawed.

“The frustrating thing to me is cases where there are vexatious litigants such as TERFs whose cases don’t get thrown out when they should.”

Several of Cr Ewin’s code of conduct battles were with “TERFs”, anti-transgender feminists, who filed their complaints after Cr Ewin made extremely critical comments about them on Facebook.

In total, Cr Ewin has copped five code of conduct complaints, totalling nearly $16,000 in fees.

Launceston, meanwhile, has had zero code of conduct complaints levelled against them in this current term of office.

Launceston mayor Albert van Zetten said all the councillors behaved quite civilly to one another.

“It’s important to have a harmonious council. It’s something we try to achieve, and each councillor looks out for their own code of conduct,” Cr van Zetten said.

“We have a council that works well together. It’s a big beautiful city up here, and we do our best to make it the best city it can be.”

Launceston mayor Albert van Zetten at the announcement of the construction tender for the next stage of UTAS' northern transformation in Launceston. Picture: PATRICK GEE

Kingborough Council had two complaints, one which was dismissed at a cost of $362 and the other was upheld against Cr David Grace at a cost of $5274.

The complaint was made after Cr Grace was accused of making threatening remarks to the mayor Paula Wriedt at a committee meeting.

Cr Grace is meeting with the director of local government on October 4 in an attempt to overturn the code of conduct panel’s decision.

“The whole system’s totally out of control. The LGAT and Local Government Association condemn it, too,” Cr Grace said.

“I didn’t get a fair hearing, but that’s the process, and I have to follow it.”

Glenorchy City Council only had one code of conduct complaint, lodged by Cr Jan Dunsby against Cr Kelly Sims over a strongly-worded email.

Kingborough councillor David Grace. Picture: Kenji Sato

Neither side got lawyers involved, so the cost to council was zero.

However Cr Dunsby did have to pay the $81 code of conduct application fee, which she believes is a little excessive.

“That’s a lot of money to me and other members of the public, and it precludes a lot of people from making a complaint,” Cr Dunsby said.

“I think you should be able to lodge a complaint at no cost, provided it’s a legitimate complaint and not a frivolous one.”

Sorell Council has only had one code of conduct complaint since 2018, which cost $378.

Clarence City Council has had three code of conduct complaints totalling at least $3885.

One of them was made by Cr Brendan Blomeley against Cr Tony Mulder, who called Cr Blomeley a “mysoginist (sic) turkey” on Facebook messenger.

There is another code of conduct case between mayor Doug Chipman against Cr Richard James, however the invoice has not been received yet.

[e-mail]